1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing apparatus, a method of controlling the information processing apparatus, a disk array device, a method of controlling the disk array device, a method of controlling display of the disk array device, and control programs for implementing the methods, and more particularly to an information processing system, an information processing apparatus, a method of controlling the information processing apparatus, a disk array device, a method of controlling the disk array device, a method of controlling display of the disk array device, and control programs for implementing the methods, which are capable of authenticating a combination of the information processing apparatus and the disk array device and then reading out information from the disk array device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, hard disk devices have drawn attention as removable media allowing high-speed access and large-capacity recording. Hard disk devices are widely used as media for use in personal computers as well as in household electrical appliances, such as copying machines, printing apparatuses, and AV (audio-visual) apparatuses.
The hard disk device is advantageous in improving security, because unauthorized access can be prevented by removing the hard disk device from an information processing apparatus.
In many cases, the hard disk device is used as a so-called system disk storing a program for booting an information processing apparatus to which the hard disk device is connected, and a system program (operating system) for controlling and managing the hardware and software resources of the booted information processing apparatus.
However, when an unauthorized system disk is mounted in the information processing apparatus, there arise the following problems:
(1) The hardware and software resources of the information processing apparatus can be unauthorizedly used or tampered; and
(2) A network system can be unauthorizedly invaded via the information processing apparatus.
Therefore, it is desired that an information processing system comprised of an information processing apparatus and a hard disk device should be started after authenticating a combination of the information processing apparatus and the hard disk device.
To this end, a technique has been disclosed e.g. in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H07-114501, in which when an identification number stored in an information processing apparatus and an identification number stored in a medium (disk) of a hard disk device mounted in the information processing apparatus are identical, the information processing apparatus is allowed to be started using the hard disk device.
However, the technique disclosed in the above-mentioned publication requires to set up the hard disk device such that data on the disk can be read, before the information processing apparatus reads out the identification number from the hard disk device and compares the same with the identification number stored in the information processing apparatus itself. The process for setting up the hard disk device includes disk spin-up processing, and hence it takes a long time to authenticate the combination of the information processing apparatus and the hard disk device.
For example, to find out a hard disk device to be mounted in the information processing apparatus for use from a plurality of hard disk devices, it is necessary to carry out the operation of mounting and removing a hard disk device many times, and it takes a long time to carry out authentication of each hard disk device. Therefore, much time is needed to find the desired hard disk device.
Further, a RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) technique has become popular in which data is stored in a distributed fashion with redundancy in a disk array comprised of a plurality of hard disk devices (hereinafter referred to as the “disk array device”), for the purpose of enhancing the reliability and capacity of the hard disk devices.
However, even with the RAID technique, a technique of quickly authenticating a combination of a disk array device comprised of a plurality of hard disk devices and an information processing apparatus in which the hard disk array is mounted has naturally not been realized.
Furthermore, techniques disclosed e.g. in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publications (Kokai) No. H04-6685, No. H06-290569, and No. H09-259570 have been proposed for single storage media and single storage devices, not for disk array devices, and hence have some weak points when applied to a portable disk array device.
In a disk array device, the entire array structure is regarded as a single disk drive, so that in the case of a disk array device having a display device provided for each disk drive or storage medium (hereinafter referred to as “the disk drive” or “a disk drive”), identical contents are displayed on all the display devices. This is very redundant, and increases the number of component parts and the manufacturing costs. Further, unless each display device is well positioned, the display can be covered by support members of the array structure, or by another disk drive as a component of the array. In addition, it is disadvantageous in terms of manufacturing costs because special disk drives each provided with a display device are required so as to form a disk array device.
On the other hand, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H09-6548 has proposed another example of the disk array device. Although this publication contains a description related to display (information related to access status and failure) presented when an array cartridge as a replaceable part of the disk array device is mounted in the body of the disk array device, but contains no disclosure of display presented when the array cartridge is not mounted in the body of the disk array device.
Moreover, in a disk array device, each disk drive is separately replaceable in case of failure of a disk drive, and therefore an improper combination of disk devices can be mounted due to human error or unauthorized use. None of the conventional techniques teach how to display in such a case.